Semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles such as robotic or driver-less vehicles are being developed. The vehicles are designed to sense and navigate around the vehicle's surrounding without the user's input. The vehicles may employ various elements to operate such as, radar tracking, a global position system (GPS), a computer vision system, and the like. Further, the vehicles are capable of mapping and updating the vehicle's driving paths based on conditions or changes the vehicle encounters during operation.
To enter into a semi-autonomous or autonomous state, the vehicle notifies the user to activate or switch to an autonomous mode through an audio or visual alert, and requests that the user activate the autonomous mode. Alternatively, the vehicle may perform a mechanical notification such as, a jarring of the steering wheel or vibration of the seat to alert the user to switch to autonomous mode. Once the user activates the autonomous mode, the user must deactivate the autonomous mode to return to a regular driving mode.
However, various problems exist with the current semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles. First, the audio, visual, or mechanical alerts occur quickly. This may startle the user, which causes the user to jerk the steering wheel or otherwise create unsafe driving conditions. Second, the semi-autonomous and autonomous modes require the user to activate the mode, which may be inconvenient or impossible at times depending on the user's state. For example, if the user begins to fall asleep at the wheel, they may not be able to activate the autonomous modes. Third, the transition from driving mode to autonomous mode is not seamless. Additionally, the current semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles do not take into account all conditions experienced by the driver before notifying the driver to switch into an autonomous mode.